Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Chancellor Carmen Fariña Changes New York City Schools’ Course

She seems like a lovely person and I'm sure her heart is in the right place, but by all accounts Carmen Fariña is your classic left-wing do-gooder who has no clue how enormous, broken organizations work or how to fix them – and hence the children of NYC (2% of all US schoolkids) will pay the price. Nadelstern nails it:

Eric Nadelstern, a visiting professor at Columbia University Teachers College and a former deputy chancellor under Mr. Klein, with whom Ms. Fariña clashed, said that Ms. Fariña was "an outstanding teacher" and "a great principal," but that as chancellor she was relying on strategies that had proved unsuccessful over decades of efforts to transform urban education.

"What we haven't seen is the systemic approach to thinking about how to move the system from where it is to where it's never been," Mr. Nadelstern said. "And part of that really is defining learning outcomes so that the public knows how to hold you accountable."

He went on: "What exactly are they focused on that you can measure and as a consequence manage by and hold them accountable by? I haven't heard anything."

Chancellor Carmen Fariña Changes New York City Schools' Course

Carmen Fariña, the New York City schools chancellor, during a December visit to the Happy Dragon School in Brooklyn.